Real Irish Wedding: Amy Best and Adam McCausland

~ Real Life Wedding

Real Irish Wedding: 1st June 2012, Glenarm Castle, Ballymena

Yeah sure, a big white wedding is nice. The Wedding March is nice. Flower petals up the aisle are nice and dancing to Michael Buble is nice but Adam and Amy didn’t want a nice wedding. They wanted an unforgettable one.

“We knew quite early on we wanted something to suit our unusual styles and interests,” said Amy. “So went with a twist on a ‘Steampunk’ wedding theme, with Victorian/Explorer elements.”

Deciding upon the wedding venue was easy for the bride who had long fantasised about saying ‘I do’ within the atmospheric grounds of Glenarm Castle. Securing it, however, required a little more effort.

“I contacted the Estate,” recalled Amy. “But they said they’d never actually hosted a wedding reception in the gardens and suggested I try to write to Lady Dunluce personally and ask permission. It worked!”

With their dream wedding venue in place, the pair then realised their innovative vision with Magnakata Tipis, which hosted around 130 wedding guests, in the explorer style they wanted.

Amy’s wedding dress had to complement the individuality of the day and was the main focus from the start. With her bespoke skills in corsetry, designer Lynne Gregg was chosen by Amy to bring her dream wedding dress to life; a striped corset made of raw silk with copper satin piping, a silk skirt with cocoa lace inserts and a detachable bustle in the fishtail.

Although there were no major hiccups on the day, Amy recalls a particular memory that stands out. “As we were clearing out the tipis the next morning, Adam and I happened to see Lady Dunluce in the Gardens and decided to go and thank her in person.

“I gave her my sister’s bridesmaid bouquet as a gesture, we had a few words and that was that. Ten minutes later when my sister arrives to help, she has her bouquet in her hands having taken it off Lady Dunluce, not realising who she was, thinking a tourist had stolen it!

“I had to force her to try and find Lady Dunluce again, apologise and give it back, needless to say she was incredibly embarrassed but said Lady Dunluce just laughed it off!”